Ola going app-only makes a lot of sense

Ola says it is going app-only since it is now receiving around 99% of its bookings through the app as compared to 20% at launch.Vikas SN | July 28, 2015, 18:27 IST

India's largest taxi aggregator Ola is also going app-only for cab bookings and will stop taking bookings on its website and on the phone from next month. The company says this is because it is now receiving as much as 99% of its bookings through the app as compared to 20% at launch.

This move makes a lot of sense for a location-based service like Ola, since it would be able to collect a lot of consumer patterns and location-based data from app-based bookings as against phone or website bookings.

This would hopefully help the SoftBank-backed company to improve its demand-supply equation and remove the uncertainty about cab availability at any point of time, to make it entirely on-demand basis, something similar to its competitor Uber, which has been an app-only service since its inception.

It is also beneficial for both drivers and customers: customers get to track the driver's location after booking a ride, track their entire trip and also share their ride details to their friends and family, something which is not possible with phone or website bookings. As for drivers, they get a better idea of where the customer is located, although anecdotally it tends to be inaccurate at times.

There is however a minor roadblock with this move, since customers would now necessarily need to have an active Internet connection on their mobile phones to book cabs, unless they are piggy backing on their friends or family to book rides. That being said, this development is unlikely to create a flutter among Indian netizens as compared to when Flipkart-owned Myntra went app-only, a move which continues to drive debates in the startup ecosystem.